Hunted
by Empress Akitla
Summary: Set after "Origins". Victor prevents his brother from getting shot and losing his memory. But he should've killed Stryker while he had the chance. Now Logan, Kayla, and Victor have a killer on their trail, but she may not be as bad as they think.
1. Home

**Note: This idea came to me while I was supposed to be working on something else. Hopefully it'll pick up soon. The next chapter should explain why it's called "Hunted". For now, though, just R&R.**

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Still smoldering remains of the fallen cooling tower lay strewn over the ground. The giant pieces of cement dwarfed the two mutants walking through them.

Kayla had one hand over her wound and her other arm around Logan's neck. Even though she was bleeding and hurting, she felt an inner peace. She really loved Logan, and he had accepted that her love was real.

"It'll be alright," Logan whispered, trying to reassure himself as much as Kayla. "We'll get you some help."

In the distance, Victor was crouched on top of one of the crumbled pieces of concrete. He was watching his little brother hold his girlfriend and walk towards the small plane waiting by the water. Victor had always seen love as an obstacle, something that slowed you down. His brother loved that woman, and that made him soft. The only person the older feral mutant had loved was his little brother, even though half of him still hated Logan for abandoning him and Team X. While he thought about these things, a strong scent hit his nose and interrupted his train of thought. Stryker. The feral mutant glanced towards his left and saw the silver haired man checking the barrel of his pistol. The bullets were gone.

"Brother's look out for each other," Victor smirked as he stuffed the Adamantium bullets into his coat pocket.

He debated whether to go after Stryker and kill him. He decided to wait. He'd track him down later. For now, though, he was going to get off this island before people started swarming it. Victor jumped from the heap of cement and landed lightly on his feet.

By the plane, Logan was helping Kayla in while Remy came running from the distance.

"The kids are safe," he said once he got within earshot.

"Good. We need to get to hospital," Logan stayed in the back of the plane with his girlfriend.

"I'm on it," Remy started up the engine and the plane skidded across the water and up into the air.

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Hours later in a hospital where Remy had flown Logan and Kayla to, the feral mutant was sitting in the waiting room. His head was buried in his hands as he waited for any news.

"Mr.…uh…" a nurse dressed in white entered the waiting room.

"Logan," he said.

"Mr. Logan, Kayla's going to be fine," the nurse smiled. "You can go see her now."

"Thank you," Logan stood up from the uncomfortable chair and followed the nurse.

In the room, Kayla was laying in the bed. Logan smiled and sat down on the edge.

"How're you doing?" He asked gently.

"I'm alright," Kayla brushed her hand against Logan's cheek. "I can't wait to go home."

"She can leave by tomorrow morning," the nurse told them before walking out.

"I'm having that Remy fella check out the area before we head back," Logan's expression darkened. "Who knows what Stryker may have waiting for us back home. We're going to stay in a hotel for a few nights."

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Two nights later, both mutants were in a fairly nice, quiet hotel in the far side of Helena, Montana. They had moved quite a ways off from the hospital in case Stryker had sent some goons looking for them.

There was a knock at their door. Logan raised an eyebrow and looked out the peephole. He relaxed and opened the door. Remy walked in and whispered something to the mutant and slipped something small into his hand. When Logan turned around he was smiling. Remy disappeared back out the door.

"What was that about?" Kayla asked. She was underneath the covers of the bed. "You look awfully happy."

"Remy said he didn't see hide or hair of any of Stryker's men," Logan smiled again. "So I guess it's safe to go home."

"I know you, you're going to be on high alert no matter what," Kayla sat up and leaned against the wall. "Now, why are you so happy?"

"Kayla, I love you so much," Logan took her hand in his. "I don't know what I would do without you."

Kayla started to tear up, knowing what was coming.

"Kayla," Logan opened up the little black box Remy had given him. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes!" Kayla threw her arms around Logan's neck and just hugged him.

This was the beginning of a new life for both of them.

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**Note: Yeah, yeah, I know. This chapter was way short. The first few chapters are gonna be 'way short'.**


	2. Idalene

**Note: Yeah! Chapter two! Okay, so, this is coming along better than I hoped. Sorry this chapter is a little more centered around my character. Don't worry, the whole story isn't centered on her.**

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A scream echoed out into the night. It was cut short and turned into a gurgle before it fell silent. A female was crouched over the body of her latest victim. She stood and wiped the blood from her claws onto her ragged blue jeans.

"I need to stop working so cheap," she mumbled to herself as she licked her busted lip.

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It was early morning and gray clouds blocked out the light. The town was quiet, as usual. Inside an apartment in the complex, the female was stretched out on her couch. She hadn't changed out of the clothes from the night before. Shaking her head as the smell of dried blood filled her nose, she decided to change.

After changing into a black t-shirt and some different ragged blue jeans, she plopped back down on the couch. Last night had been a long night. Her victims seemed like they were getting smarter and feistier. Or maybe she was getting slow. Nah, she passed that idea off.

A knock came from her door.

"Hang on," she groaned as she walked over there sleepily. She opened it and stared a little annoyed at the silver haired man. "What?"

"I'm William Stryker," the man said. "Are you Idalene Raven Longwillows?"

"It's just Ida." She resisted from gagging at the overwhelming stench of sausage and egg breath. Having a strong sense of smell meant information overload. "And who wants to know?" Ida leaned against the door, her arms crossed over her chest.

"I have an assignment for you, if you'd like to hear me out," Stryker waited for an answer.

Ida pushed the door open further and motioned for him to come in. He walked in a little hesitantly and sat on the old couch. She joined him, though Ida saw on the arm of the couch.

"Well?" Ida yawned, baring unusually long canines.

"I've heard that you've worked as a mercenary," Stryker said. "I have three people I'd like you to hunt down."

"How much are you willin' to pay?" Ida asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Half of a million," a smirk tugged at Stryker's mouth. "For each."

"Who am I hunting?" Ida questioned. "The president, his wife, and the vice president?"

"No, three mutants, such as yourself," Stryker replied mildly. "This package has pictures and little bit of information about each of them."

"Do you know their whereabouts?" Ida sliced open the envelope and scattered the contents on the coffee table.

"Two are in northwest Canada," Stryker answered. "I don't know about the other. I haven't seen any of him for almost two years."

Ida looked from the pictures and papers up to Stryker. She smiled, her fangs getting revealed in the process.

"When do I get my money?" She asked as she tilted her head to the side.

"When you bring me proof that they're dead," Stryker nodded and stood up. "You may be the only one to bring them down."

The feral female waited until Stryker had left before she started peeling her clothes off and headed for the shower. The sooner she gets started the sooner she has one million and five hundred thousand dollars in her 'pocket'.

About fifteen minutes later Ida stepped out into the steamy room. She wrapped a black towel around her chest and started to dry off. After putting on a pair of underwear, the ragged blue jeans, and a white sports bra she looked at herself in the mirror. One hundred and thirty five pounds of pure muscle stared back.

"When did I get that scar?" Ida ran a black claw over a small scar above her waistline. "Oh yeah… that stupid fence gave me that."

That 'stupid fence' had scarred her when she'd been forced over it by an angry mob. That had happened back in 1896. Ida had been about fifty six when that happened. The good thing was she still looked like she was twenty five, even now, at the ripe old age of one hundred and sixty five. Just another advantage of being ageless, though it felt like a curse at times.

"Gotta tell Ms. Gram I'll be gone for about two weeks," Ida spoke to herself as she pulled on her black t-shirt and started to pack various things. "Gotta get something to eat… Oh! And have to fill up my truck. Not gonna get very far otherwise."

It took only half an hour for her to pack. She took only a backpack with two sets of extra clothes, the information Stryker had given her, a book, her laptop, and a knife or two. Ida locked up her place and ran down to the next level. On her way down she whacked her head on a low pipe.

"Danget!" Ida rubbed her head but continued her decent down.

Once down on the lower level banged on the door marked with a '3'. An elderly woman answered.

"Idalene, where are you going this early in the morning?" Ms. Gram asked.

"I've gotta go to Canada for a week or two, it's just business," Ida answered gently. "I just wanted to tell you so you didn't get worried if you didn't see me for a couple of weeks."

"Oh, well then, wait right here," the white haired woman walked back into her apartment for a few minutes then reappeared. "Take some peanut brittle with you."

"Thank you Ms. Gram," Ida took the zip lock bag and stuffed it into her backpack. "I'll see ya in a few weeks!"

"Good bye Idalene!" Ms. Gram stood at her door and waved until her tenant disappeared down the stairs.

It didn't take Ida very long to get to the nearest gas station and fill her silver four-door Ford up with gas. She ran inside real quick, grabbed a breakfast burrito and a bottle of water, and then she was on her way with another 'business trip'.


	3. Victor

**Note: Yay! Chapter three! Don't worry, everyone will slowly come together as the story goes along...**

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It had been two years, two whole years since the Three Mile Island incident. Two years since he'd seen his little brother. Two years since he'd even caught a whiff of Stryker. Why didn't he kill him when he had the chance? He didn't know. It would've been easy just to tear his throat out…

_Crack!_

Victor whipped his head around. Something had knocked a rock onto the pavement. No one was behind him and a breeze was keeping everything behind him downwind. He looked forward, realizing he'd lost his target. Man, he hated working as a mercenary for different people. It had been alright when he was hunting mutants, but hunting humans was just too easy.

Thomas Jones, ex-Military. That was his latest target. He had accepted the job not because he needed the money but because he needed the challenge. Victor's current employer was a rich Vietnamese tycoon. Apparently this Thomas Jones killed his family in the Vietnam War. Now this man wanted revenge, but was too chickened to go after Jones himself. So, Victor was hired to make it look as if he had an accident of some kind. No evidence was supposed to lead back to his employer.

The feral mutant stopped as he felt the coldness of a gun at the back of his head. _Well, it seems I've become the hunted, _Victor thought and smirked.

"Yeah, that's right, this is a gun," a cold voice said. "I know you've been following me all day. Now, who are you?"

"Well," Victor turned around slowly, a wild gleam in his frosty blue eyes. "I would be you're murderer."

"Guess what pal," Thomas growled. "I'm you're murderer."

_Bang! Bang!_

Victor was still standing. The holes in his chest were already beginning to heal themselves.

_Bang!_

Now Thomas was getting nervous.

_Bang!_

Victor smiled.

_Bang! Bang! _

The feral mutant grew his claws to their maximum length.

_Click! Click! Click!_

Empty. No more bullets. Thomas was sweating hard, completely freaked out by the man who must have had six bullets in his chest by now.

"And you're my murderer?" Victor grabbed the man's throat and easily lifted him off of his feet.

Thomas felt unnatural claws digging into his throat. His only way out now was with a bone breaking kick. The black haired man's foot connected with Victor's jaw and there was a loud crack. As soon as he hit the ground, Thomas started running for cover in a small forest that was actually just two acres with trees planted close together on it.

"Let's see you get up from that," Thomas spat as he ran. He tried to reason that maybe the guy had on a bullet proof vest. "Yeah, that's it," he said aloud. "But he doesn't have a foot proof jaw."

Victor 'yawned' to get his jaw back into place. His healing system had already fixed his lower jaw that had been in two pieces only seconds ago. This guy was more of a challenge! The feral mutant got up and took off running into the trees, running like a big cat rather than a man. It didn't take very long before his target came into his sight.

Thomas looked over his shoulder. _Holy crap! What is this guy?_ That had barely been made into a sentence when it felt like a truck hit him from behind. Victor rolled the guy over onto his back and planted his knee on Thomas' chest.

"What are you?" Thomas asked as the guy's face loomed over him.

"An animal who dreamed he was a man," Victor bared his fangs and dove for the man's throat.

A gurgled scream echoed out into the night. In the morning, someone's dog found the maimed guy. It was dubbed an animal attack.

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**Note: Please R&R!**


	4. McDonalds

**Note: Yay! There's a surprise character in this chapter...**

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"I am so sore!" Ida jumped out of her truck at the McDonalds she'd stopped at. "Driving is so not my thing."

Ida was in Denver, Colorado now. She'd been driving since six and it was around noon now. Six whole hours without moving for a normally active feral was torture. But now she was stretching every which way, her back and neck popping in the process.

"Grab a quick bite then get on the road again," Ida walked into the fast food place and stood in line.

Talk about information overload. There were so many smells. Some made her mouth water while others made her want to gag. Ida could smell sweat, the garbage, whatever was leaking out of the bathrooms, and other nasty things. She tried not the focus on those things. She focused on the smell of French fries, hamburgers, milkshakes, chicken nuggets, salads, coffee, an old friend…

"Wait, what?" Ida accidently said aloud. She sniffed again. Yep. There was definitely someone she knew there.

_Maybe I'm just smelling things, _Ida reasoned. She shook away the scent and moved forward in the line. What did she want to eat? A Big Mac with some fries and a Dr. Pepper sounded good. She actually wanted a shot of whiskey but knew she'd have to wait on that one.

"What would you like to order ma'am?" The person behind the counter asked.

"Give me a Big Mac, a large fries, and a large drink," Ida said as she leaned up against the cold counter.

"That'll be five dollars and seventy five cents," the young girl replied.

"Okay," Ida dug around in her pocket. She pulled out a five dollar bill and three quarters. "Here you go."

"Thank you," the girl put the money into its proper place in the cash register.

Ida backed away from the counter and waited patiently for her food to come. She liked to think she had has much patient as a spider waiting for a fly. Most of the time she was a spider that chased the fly until she caught it, but she could sit and fish for hours on end. It just depended on what she was doing.

"Big Mac, large fries, and large drink," someone shouted as they set a tray on the counter.

"That was quick," Ida mumbled and grabbed her tray.

She scoured the area for a free table. There was an empty one in the corner. Ida set her tray down and grabbed the empty cup to go fill it up with the sugary drink known as Dr. Pepper. For a second she wondered whether or not it'd be a good idea to drink that, seeing as she was usually active and she still had a long ways to drive before she got far enough to stop at a hotel. That idea was pushed away. She wanted Dr. Pepper so bad!

"There we go," Ida snapped on the lid after filling her cup up and grabbed a straw with the paper covering on it.

As she walked past a table with a guy and a woman sitting at she paused. There was that smell again! Trying to be as invisible as possible, she looked the guy over. No wonder he smelled familiar, Ida had known him since he was a teenager. She hadn't talked to him in years! Ida walked forward, closer to her table and pulled off one end of the paper covering on her straw. She put her lips on it, took aim, and blew. The paper covering hit the guy in the back of the head.

"Hey!" he turned around but stopped once he saw who it was. "Ida?"

"Hey, what's up Zero?" Ida said and smiled. "Man, it's been a long time since I've seen you."

"Yeah, same thing with you," Zero had changed some. His attitude had dimmed down and he had a scar running from behind his right ear down his neck. "Honey, this is my old friend Ida."

"Hi," the woman held out her hand and was a little frightened when a clawed hand shook it.

"Ida, this is my wife Jade," Zero introduced the woman. "So what have you been doing?"

"Mercenary missions," Ida answered. "I've been moving from town to town. I'm on a mission right now, hunting down three mutants."

"Who?" Zero raised an eyebrow.

"Logan, Victor, and Kayla," Ida replied with a shrug. "Why?"

"I used to work with Logan and Victor. Haven't seen either of 'em for almost two years," a dark expression appeared on his face. "Are you working for Stryker?"

"He was the one who hired me," Ida could instantly smell fear and disgust on the Asian male. "What's his record?"

"I used to work for him," Zero stated. After a pause he related the long story from when Stryker came to him to when Logan ignited the fuel from the crashed helicopter. That's where he'd gotten that scar from. The doctors said they were amazed he survived that explosion.

"Wow," Ida was sitting down by now. She was completely amazed at the story. And she now knew exactly who she was hunting. Suddenly Logan and Kayla didn't seem like the bad people she was usually hired to kill, though she could still kick Logan's butt for igniting the helicopter while Zero was in it.

"Just be careful around him, okay? Stryker's a liar and a double-crosser," Zero warned as Ida picked up her bag with her now cold food in it.

"Thanks for the heads up," Ida refilled her drink and before she left, added, "Take care."

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**Note: You know, I always liked Zero. And they never comfirmed that he died in that explosion, you were left just to assume. So I _assumed_ that he didn't die and instead lived, left the mercenary business, and settled down with Jade. Please let me know what you think!**


	5. Lonely

**Note: Update time! Yay! Sorry it's been so long. I've been busy with school work and other time consuming chores. Anyways...enjoy!**

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Logan tapped impatiently on the steering wheel of his car. It was an old mustang he'd bought from some guy and fixed it up. He was outside of the school Kayla worked at. Kayla was out in the front yard, holding up an umbrella while a few kids were huddled around her, talking. After the last kid left, she dashed through the rain and over to the car.

"Sorry," Kayla collapsed the umbrella and threw it in the back seat. "Has it even stopped raining today?"

"Nope," Logan pulled onto the muddy road and started on their route home. "How was your day, honey?"

"The usual," Kayla sighed and smiled. "I told the kids a story today, though."

"What was it about this time?" Logan chuckled.

"About a lone wolf who wondered through the forest for hundreds of years, looking for somebody," Kayla smirked, thinking of how she could change the story to fit her and Logan.

"Did the wolf finally find that somebody?" Logan asked.

"I'm gonna tell the kids the other half tomorrow," Kayla replied.

The rest of the ride home was quiet. Up on the hill where their house was the thunder echoed around the canyons below them. The rain was cold and soaked anybody very easily.

The rain was even cold enough to chill a saber-tooth. Victor had been gradually been making his way up to the small town his brother lived in. He didn't necessarily want to fight him or Kayla, but just check up on Logan. It had been two whole years since he'd seen him.

Victor looked up as the woman who'd been behind the counter earlier switched shifts with a cocky looking man. The bar the feral was sitting in was the quieter one of the two bars in town. He was soaked to the bone and the bar was the only place dry enough for him. His last mercenary job had brought him closer to his brother so he just decided to go to the town since it was so close. He'd hitched one ride and walked the rest, getting caught in this hellish rainstorm. He could hear it still raging on outside, thunder shaking the walls of the small bar.

"Need another shot?" the man behind the counter asked sarcastically, noticing the many shot glasses sitting around the dark cloaked man.

"Just give me the bottle," Victor said, continuing scraping pictures on the wooden counter with his claws.

"But…" the guy started to object but shut-up when he got a death glare. He reached behind him and set the bottle of Jack Daniels by the man.

Victor noticed the bottle get set next to his arm but didn't take it right away. After finishing a carving on the counter he wrapped his fingers around the neck of the bottle and pulled it closer. He'd never felt this way before in his life, save for when Logan left the team. He just felt…lonely.

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**Note: Sorry this chapter is so short, fellas. :(**


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